Evidence closed Friday afternoon in the case of the two men charged with the May 16-17 robbery and abduction that ended at the Olde Pink House.

Chatham County Superior Court Judge Michael Karpf directed jurors to return to the courthouse at 9 a.m. Monday to hear closing arguments and instrutions on law before beginning deliberations which he anticipated after lunch Monday.

Assistant District Attorney Jerry Rothschild completed his main case about 2 p.m. Defense attorneys were to begin their case immediately.

A police detective testified today that Bryan Jones admitted searching a westside home for drugs but denied having a gun during a home invasion in May.

Jones, one of two men on trial in the May 17 robbery and abduction case, told police he heard that Earl Hamilton had "work" which was described as a code name for having drugs, Savannah-Chatham detective Johnathan Puhala told a Chatham County Superior Court jury today.

Prosecution testimony has been that two gunmen accosted Hamilton and his 12-year-old son Earl B. Hamilton at their home 1108 Milton Street late May 16, holding them overnight. Only one recovered weapon, a 9 mm Smith & Wesson handgun, has been placed in evidence.

Puhala, the lead detective in the case, remained on the witness stand for cross examination.

Earl B. Hamilton, 13, testified Thursday he feared for his safety from an armed bandit at his home in May, but said he misled police because of a “promise on my soul” with his abductor.

“I was scared for my well-being,” Hamilton, who was 12 at the time, told the Chatham County Superior Court jury.

The gunman, Brian Jones, 24, held him at gunpoint from late May 16 until the following morning as Jones and a second man ransacked the home at 1108 Milton St. for drugs, money and jewelry.

He never saw the second man, whom prosecutors contend was co-defendant Kevin Dale Brooks, 27, but heard a second man demand the items from the boy’s father, Earl Hamilton, 60.

“I prayed I’d get out of that situation,” he said.

The defendants are charged with armed robbery and related charges in the case. Each man has pleaded not guilty.

Judge Michael Karpf told jurors at the close of evidence Thursday the trial was proceeding ahead of schedule and offered the possibility the case could go to the jury by this afternoon rather than Monday as he previously indicated.

The young Hamilton’s testimony opened the state’s case against Jones and Brooks stemming from what Assistant District Attorney Jerry Rothschild told jurors was “anarchy these defendants caused the next day” in downtown Savannah.

That included a kidnapping of the elder Hamilton who fled his abductor, Brooks, at Bull and Broughton streets outside Starbucks, and a Savannah-Chatham police detective firing a gunshot into Hamilton’s Jaguar auto.

Brooks then fled ahead of a massive police reaction to the Olde Pink House Restaurant on Reynolds Square and was arrested by police SWAT team officers and K-9 unit after a several-hour standoff.

Rothschild has told the eight women and four men jurors in opening statements Thursday the defendants were targeting drug dealers in their home invasion at Hamilton’s Milton Street home.

But Brooks’ attorney, Richard Darden, told jurors the elder Hamilton was “a drug dealer, a convicted drug dealer … a many times convicted drug dealer” and said police found items related to the drug trade when they searched his home afterward.

He conceded his client “did something” wrong in the case but said he was not guilty of “most of the charges in this case.”

And Assistant Public Defender Falen Cox, co-counsel for Jones, said the elder Hamilton had been out drinking on May 16 celebrating his birthday, noting he was a “drug dealer whose business was booming.”

Testimony showed the younger Hamilton escaped the next morning as police surrounded the home after the assailant fled to the attic. He initially mislead officers, explaining he did not want to balk at his promise.

The elder Hamilton told jurors he arrived home to be confronted by two armed bandits, one with a submachine gun and the other with a 9 mm handgun.

“They tore my house up,” he told the jury.

Police witnesses testified they found the “house was in obvious disarray” when they executed a search there May 17.

Hamilton said Brooks “was basically running the show,” adding Brooks took items of jewelry, which he stuffed in a Crown Royal bag.

Police recovered the bag and jewelry from Brooks when he was arrested at the Pink House. Also in the bag was about 10.5 grams of powdered cocaine.

Hamilton, who became argumentative on cross-examination, testified he had dealt drugs early in life, including a drug addiction, but told jurors he had no drugs in the house.

“I’m too old to go to jail now,” he testified.

But defense lawyers got him to testify he was on probation on a drug sentence in May, explaining he had a “relapse.”

He denied a scenario offered by Jones co-counsel Bob Attridge, an assistant public defender, that Hamilton had a deal to sell drugs to Jones on May 16 and provided poor quality product to Jones that night.

Hamilton told his assailants he had no drugs or money at the house, but said he had $5,000 in a Georgia’s Own credit union account where he took Brooks the next day.

When he saw Savannah-Chatham police detective Trina Mayes at the Starbucks, Hamilton jumped from the still-moving car, yelling he was being robbed and that his assailant meant to kill him.

Mayes testified she stopped at the Starbucks for a cup of tea and heard a vehicle pull like it was about to run over her.

“He has a gun. He’s going to kill me,” she testified Hamilton was screaming.

“He was going to shoot me or run me over,” Mayes said of the Jaguar driver. “I drew my weapon and fired.”

Her gunshot went through the upper windshield of the Jaguar but did not hit Brooks inside. He rolled out with a gun and fled.

Police recovered a 9 mm Smith & Wesson handgun from under bushes in Johnson Square where Brooks attempted to hide.

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A 3 ringed circus going through the court system. Sounds like all the adults are pond scum and need to be sitting their rear ends in jail. The not funny comedy playing out in court of which drug seller deserves to be in jail more than the other is entirely stupid and a waste of taxpayer dollars. Too bad the kid was caught up in this, but with what he has to look as a parent, society will be hearing about him again in a not so innocent way unless he breaks through the life he knows and makes something of himself.